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just who exactlly pissed you off to make that. But hey if it can fly shoot it out of the cannon.

a while back someone mentioned raquet balls in a 2" barrel i use them they work amazing! only problem is you have to oiil your barel or cover the thing with dish soap otherwise it might stick to the barrel.

did you mold a tennis ball for that?

I used the shell of a spent incandescent light bulb. The shape of a light bulb provides a great projectile and allows for a tail for a more stable flight.
Use a file or dremmel cut-off wheel to score the glass around the fitting, and carefully break off edison fitting. Put some sand inside the bulb and swish around to get rid of the carbon, etc. build-up. Smelt some lead, pour into light bulb mold. When partially cured, insert screw. When lead is cool to touch, wear gloves and squeeze mold to break.
Be careful, the bulb/mold is fragile and can easily break if too much outside pressure is exerted. Wrapping it in tape could help the mold from breaking, but the molten lead would just burn/melt it off. I've done three of these and they work great.
For less weight, use something else to fill the mold: bondo, concrete, Durham's rock hard water putty, etc.
You can also use the candelabra-base bulbs, they work great in smaller diameter barrels.

willarddaniels wrote:

did you mold a tennis ball for that?

I used the shell of a spent incandescent light bulb. The shape of a light bulb provides a great projectile and allows for a tail for a more stable flight.
Use a file or dremmel cut-off wheel to score the glass around the fitting, and carefully break off edison fitting. Put some sand inside the bulb and swish around to get rid of the carbon, etc. build-up. Smelt some lead, pour into light bulb mold. When partially cured, insert screw. When lead is cool to touch, wear gloves and squeeze mold to break.
Be careful, the bulb/mold is fragile and can easily break if too much outside pressure is exerted. Wrapping it in tape could help the mold from breaking, but the molten lead would just burn/melt it off. I've done three of these and they work great.
For less weight, use something else to fill the mold: bondo, concrete, Durham's rock hard water putty, etc.
You can also use the candelabra-base bulbs, they work great in smaller diameter barrels.

That made me think,could you some how inject flouresent glow chemicals into the bulb for a nice night shot?

That made me think,could you some how inject flouresent glow chemicals into the bulb for a nice night shot?

Yes, the glow stuff would be visible through the bulb and make for an awesome shot; however, the bulb will shatter when you fire it, sending glass shards everywhere.
A safer and easier method would be to just fire glow sticks or fill small plastic bottles with your solution.
They do make clear golf balls that you can insert a small glow stick into for night golfing ...which is really fun, btw. The very small glow sticks are under 1/4" in diameter, they would work great in minis. The balls are about $2.50 each, so just get the inserts.

willarddaniels wrote: Be careful, the bulb/mold is fragile and can easily break if too much outside pressure is exerted. Wrapping it in tape could help the mold from breaking, but the molten lead would just burn/melt it off.

Just bury it in sand with the top exposed.

As for glowing light bulbs, wrapping them in clear packing tape should keep them together. If they do explode in the barrel, you'll get an impressive looking effect and a green muzzle flash for the next couple shots

Anyone ever noticed that 3/4 inch endcaps fit in 1 1/4 inch PVC? 1 inch PVC fits well in it too. Im gonna make some Single Diameter PVC missles.......... ooo and 3/4 inch PVC fits into 1 inch pvc with some squeezing.....

Only the the countless people who have built 1 1/4" pistons guns with 3/4" caps as pistons...

-Butt

Yeah VH 3/4 end caps have same dimensions as 1" pipe and 3/4 " pipe fits in 1" and 1/2" pipe with little sanding fits in 3/4" pipe.

For copper cannons:

Get a section of barrel sized pipe , length is dependant on the length of projectile you want.

Line it with tinfoil and scrunch up the tinfoil at one end to form a cup.

Pour in molten lead, allow to cool, extract slug and unwrap the tinfoil from it.

I used ~20mm of 15mm copper pipe, kitchen foil, a metre of soldering wire and a soldering iron.

Melted the wire into the mould until a pool formed then kept the bit dipped in the pool as I fed the wire in. Had to scrape off the crust of flux when it cooled but after firing it and remelting it, the resin from the flux had gone

Sruggles idea btw: http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/viewtop ... 4&start=0&

i have made a rather good dart. works well at close range not sure on accuracy never tested it properly. 110mm piece of 12mm dowel with a hole drilled half way down the middle and a piece of 0.5mm metal rod sharpened at both ends hammered into the hole as long as you want. then wrap masking tape around it for a tight fit in to the barrel.


excuse the messy desk and beer bottles hahah

ok this one came from my MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER he thought it would be cool if you shot socks covered in hairspray from a combustion cannon

1.5" barrel: pingpong ball filled with BBs

Foam golf ball (nerf ball basically) + toilet paper tube (certain brands are too large - try different brands till it works, I used Ultra Quilted Northern) + electrical tape = Nerf dart for a 1.5 in barrel. Shove foam ball into TP tube so it looks like an endcap. Then spiral electrical tape around the tube (don't put it on thick - keep as thin as you can) until you get to the top edge of the tube, then do a ring so no cardboard is showing. Next shove the ball in a little bit more, crush the tp around it on two opposite sides, and put a strip of electrical tape long way down the tube, over the ball/crushed tip of tube and down the other side of the tube. (Now that I think of it, probably would be better to do this first then the spiral) then cut off the corners of cardboard so the end is fairly rounded.

I need to somehow add fins to mine. I am thinking of putting a spring-loaded fin system inside the tube so that i can squeeze the fins in but once the dart leaves the barrel they will spring out. This might take a while to get something that works, and I may not ever accomplish this. My backup would be to get another foam ball, stick a rod with fins attached through it and shove it in the tube so the fins stick out the back.

you could just use thin sheet foam ( I believe the product is called foamies ) and then bend it around the projectile, kinda like a nerf footballs fins, and when it exits the barrell it will spring out and be fins again.